Celebrity Tattoos

For most people, getting tattooed is a private, artistic decision

For a celebrity, getting a tattoo can become a media circus with future employment ramifications. Tattoo designs that were crafted with personal intention can suddenly become the latest must-have copycat item for hundreds of fans worldwide or become the subject of tattoo artist versus tattoo-wearer lawsuits.

Shown here, Academy-Award winning screenwriter Diablo Cody.

Amy Winehouse's Tattoos

Amy Winehouse is known for her bluesy voice, her wild behavior and a baker's dozen of tattoos. A lot of her ink is "old school" in flavor, being colored and styled more like tattoos from the mid-20th century.

Her arms sport most of her tats. If you look at pictures, you'll find a lucky horseshoe, a lightning bolt, a feather and a gaggle of pin-up girls. Some of those tattooed ladies are dressed and some are not. The British tabloids like to say she's tattooed like a sailor. However, her choice of designs that look more like they are from the 1950s or 1960s is actually part of a trend right now in tattooing. This style of skin art also goes well with her look and musical style which both harken back to the 60s.

Hottest Tattooed Female Celebrity

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Jolie, Angelina

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Lena Headey

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christinaricci4

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Asia_Argento_21

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Amy Winehouse, BBC BBQ

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victoria-beckham-tattoo-neck

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13MasumiLCCount

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Jenny Shimizu and Clint Catalyst

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Johnny Depp's Tattooed For Life

He's not only a leading man, but a leader in the realm of tattooed actors. Johnny Depp started getting skin art before it got trendy, and he's kept his whole ink collection very personal. In fact, most of the time, you won't see a single tattoo of his in any of his movie roles.

He's got designs for his Native American heritage, the name "Betty Sue" for his mom and one that used to be for Winona Ryder. He's got tattoos for both of his children too.

If you're asking yourself, hey, didn't Captain Jack Sparrow's tattoo seem to change arms from the first Pirates Of The Caribbean movie and the second? the answer is *yes*.

In the first movie, Sparrow's right forearm is bared by Norrington, to reveal a sparrow tattoo and a branded P for 'pirate.' In the sequel, the sparrow tattoo is now on the left arm. The reason? In the first movie, it was a fake tattoo. When you see it in the second movie, it's now a genuine tattoo, which Depp decided to make permanent after the birth of his son Jack. Johnny not only switched the arm placement but he had the design "flipped over" so that now the sparrow is flying towards him, not away.

Actors and Rockers and Athletes, Oh My!

Celebrity tattoo-watchers aren't just limited to actors and actresses. There are even more tattoos to be found in the world of sports and music.

Celebrity Skin: Tattoos, Brands, and Body Adornments of the Stars

by Jim Gerard

Jim Gerard has captured the images and ink of over sixty celebrities, athletes, models and musicians in this book.

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Tattoo Nation: Portraits of Celebrity Body Art (Rolling Stone Magazine)

by Rolling Stone Press

Culled from the pages of Rolling Stone magazine comes this collection of pictures of tattooed celebrities.

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Celebrity Tattoos

by Lisa Dyer

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In the Paint: Tattoos of the NBA and the Stories Behind Them

by Andrew Gottlieb

Photographs of the wildest, weirdest and most interesting tattoos of the NBA, accompanied by firsthand accounts of what the tattoos mean and why they're there. Around 70% of the league is 'tatted out.' The game is played so fast that it's hard to tell what even the most obvious tattoos actually are. And some of the most interesting ones are hidden behind jerseys or under socks. In the Paint takes you in the locker room and as close as you can get to the tattoos and the stories of the NBA.

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Rock Star Tattoo Encyclopedia

Author/photographer Patricia Steur got to see some of the best in rock star ink, not only through her work but through her marriage to Amsterdam tattooist Hanky Panky. Lots of 80s punk, metal, new wave and SKA musicians.

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David Beckham's Tattoo Collection

British-born soccer superstar David Beckham is probably best known to non-soccer fans for his fashion sense and his tattoos. Beckham's tattoo collection is a mix of personal religious symbolism and designs for his wife and two sons. The mix includes Hindu sanskrit, Latin phrases, a few crosses and angels, and the number 7 which he wore when he played for Manchester United. Specific pieces of ink are in honor of his wife, Victoria (aka Posh Spice) and their three sons, Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz.

Just before his arrival in the US to play for the LA Galaxy team, David got his right forearm tattooed, making all his work into one complete sleeve. The lower arm continued the angelic theme started on his upper arm. Then he got a large, topless portrait of his wife that takes up his entire right forearm. His very latest piece is a Chinese proverb that runs down the left side of his torso from armpit to waist.

He's also come under fire from his own tattooist, London-based Louis Malloy. It seems that Malloy feels he should get a cut of some of Beckham's modeling fees for ad campaigns that have featured the tattoos prominently. The copyright and ownership of tattooing is a new battleground in the art world and only time will tell how this case will play out.

Check out lots of pictures of David Beckham's tattoos.

Celebrity Tattooing

Take a closer look at some celebrity tattooing. Celebrities are listed alphabetically by last name (if applicable).

Ben Affleck: Actor Ben Affleck has some work on one shoulder that appears to have been added to over time.
David Beckham: British soccer player David Beckham has been collecting tattoos for many years. He's also fighting with his tattooist over ownership of his tattoos.
Cher: Take a look at Cher's tattoos now, as it turns out she's slowly but surely having them all lasered off!
Johnny Depp's Tattoos: Johnny Depp began getting tattoos on his arms at the age of seventeen, marking points in his life that he deemed significant.
Chris Evans: The popular kanji tattoo
Colin Farrell: Colin's ink expresses his attitude towards life.
Angelina Jolie: Easily the most tattooed actress ever to win a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award.
Anthony Kiedis: Red Hot Chili Pepper Anthony Kiedis is known for his many tribal-style tattoos. Take a closer look at his Native American-influenced ink!
Ewan McGregor: He's got his wife and daughters names all in one big tattoo.
Viggo Mortenson and Orlando Bloom: Various tattoos on both men, plus some fakes for magazine photo shoots.
Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson's Tattoos: Professional wrestler and action movie star Dwayne Johnson is not only the third generation in his family to wrestle professionally, he is the third generation in a row to be tattooed.
Dennis Rodman: As bad as he wants to be.
Henry Rollins: From Black Flag to spoken word.
Jenny Shimizu: Jenny Shimizu was known as the tomboy darling of the runway. She's most famous for her tattoos, her passion for Harley Davidsons, and her love affairs with other supermodels and celebrity like Angelina Jolie.
Amy Winehouse: British singer Amy Winehouse didn't have any tattoos when she first got started a few years ago, but she sure does now. Take a closer look at the tattoos of Amy Winehouse.

Angelina Jolie's Tattoos

see some of Angelina's every-growing collection of tattoos

No other Academy Award-winning actress has ever had as many tattoos as Angelina Jolie. She acquires ink as she wishes and has done several cover-ups and a few laser removals along the way as well. Her collection is very much in the American vein of tattooing, with multiple tattoos on her arms, stomach and back. They mix languages and styles, and she gets them traveling around, almost like how sailors used to do it.

She's got Latin, English and Cambodian words on her, prayers for her family and personal mottos. Several Japanese kanji have come and gone. Her lower back has a large Tiger that was done by the traditional Thai hand methods, and somewhere way down her recently pregnant belly you'll find a large cross, which is a cover-up for a dragon she once had done when drunk. We'll have to wait a bit to see if that tattoo came through the pregnancy ok.

The one bit of ink that you won't see anymore due to it being lasered off is the words "Billy Bob" that used to be adjacent that dragon on her left upper arm. Recent pics show new ink which is the latitude and longitude numbers for Cambodia and Ethiopia, birthplaces of her first two adopted children. The dragon also shows signs of being lasered off as it's greatly faded.

Check out Angelina's tattoos in more detail. She just got some ink for baby Shiloh and newly-adopted son Pax.

Celeb Tattoo Odds N Endz

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Britney's Tattoo Adventures

the saga of Britney Spears' tattoos

Poor Britney. Her luck with the paparazzi is about as good as her luck with tattoos. Twice she's gotten tattoos that don't mean what she meant for them to say.

The first was the Japanese kanji on her hip. It was supposed to say "mysterious" but instead the character etched on her is most often translated as "strange." #1 rule of kanji tattoos: check with a native speaker first.

The other one she got which didn't turn out as expected was the Hebrew one on the back of her neck. She wanted it to read "new era" in honor of her study of Kabbalah, but no one checked to make sure the tattooist got the characters in the right order and she wound up with a tattoo that didn't mean anything. Also, the Kabbalah forbids tattooing, which really makes you wonder what her rabbi thinks of all this. Recently reports indicate she may have had that tattoo lasered and redone with a Hebrew design that means "healing."

She's also got a few other tattoos: a fairy, some pink dice, a daisy and a butterfly.

Her latest bits of ink are a black, pink and white cross on her hips and a pair of red and pink lips on her wrist, which she had done in a LA tattoo parlor after shaving her own head at an upscale hair salon where she had been refused service. Reports from the tattoo parlor were that Britney was making a lot of noise and moving frequently in response to the pain of the tattooing.

Tattooed Male Celebs

Here are some male celebs sporting ink.

Dennis Rodman

Lenny Kravitz

Henry Rollins

Billie Joe

Danny Trejo

Dave Gahan

Dave Navarro

David Beckham

Anthony Kiedis - RHCP

Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock

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Colin Farrell's Tattoo Attitude

He drinks... he swears... OF COURSE Colin Farrell has got some tattoos.

Colin's ink can be found on both of his arms. His right upper arm is covered with a large design. He's also got tattooing on the inside of his left forearm. A tattoo for a former flame is covered by a large cross now, and he's got "carpe diem" (seize the day) tattooed there as well.

Tattoo Posters

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Travis Barker's Full-Body Art

Travis Barker is known for being a very good drummer, the guy divorcing Shanna Moakler and for his incredible array of tattoos. It takes some serious effort get more tattooed than this.

He spent a decade as the drummer of blink-182, and now can be heard playing with +44. He also got to do a guest-spot on the Las Vegas incarnation of CSI last season, appearing as a rapper who has one of his street teams murdered over a feud with another rapper.

Ink-wise, if you look at pictures taken over the course of his career, you'll slowly see the tattoos getting denser and denser. Images include the words "can I say" on his upper chest, "hope" on his lower back, a large boom box on his stomach, mudflap girls, a portrait of Jesus, various Cadillac symbols and a variety of "lucky" images, such as dice, a dollar sign, a rabbit's foot and the number seven.

Celebrity Tattoo Web Sites

These are web sites that are primarily indexes of pictures of celebrities with tattoos. The galleries can range from moderate to enormous in size.

CELEBRITY TATTOOS :: Tattooed celebrities, historical figures, supermodels, sports stars, rock stars: CELEBRITY TATTOOS :: The webs' original & biggest list of celebs and tattooed historical figures, supermodels, sports and rock stars all with tattoos, lots of pictures!
Celebrity Tattoos , Celebrities Bodyart: Celebrity Tattoo Gallery - Celebrities and their Fashion
Celebrity Tattoos- famous people with tattoos: Celebrities with tattoos, search through our database of pictures of famous people with tattoos
Celebrity Tattoos | Designs from kidzworld.com: Check out some of the tattoos and tattoo designs of your fave celebrities like Sarah Michelle Gellar, Drew Barrymore, Usher, and Kevin Richardson. Chinese symbols are pretty popular!
Celebrity tattoos by Caroline Cullern: Gone are the days when tattoos were reserved for Hells Angels on Harleys, now all the stars seem to be decorating their bodies with pretty pictures! Check out what these celebs went for...
Celebrity Tattoos from tattoospot.com: These are some tattos that celebs sport
Celebrity Tattoo Quiz: Test your celebrity tattoo knowledge with this quick and fun 10 question quiz. How much do you know about movie, music and sport star body art?
Movie Tattoos and Body Art: As an actor's body is their tool, it makes sense to stay as blank as possible to be able to adapt to any role. Sometimes that includes wearing temporary tattoos for a movie role.

Mike Tyson's Facial Tattoo

Boxer Mike Tyson expanded on his tattoo collection (which includes Chairman Mao and the name "Mike") to include a tribal-style facial tattoo.

When asked why he did it, he made statements about taking inspiration from the Maori and their fighting spirit. This is a bit odd as the tattoo isn't anything like their designs at all. It's a purely American take on elements found in Borneon tattoos. Plus, the Maori tattooed their faces based on strict cultural standards and the patterns in that society are about family and heritage primarily. Tyson's reasoning didn't sit well with the Maori community, and abstractions in the press that it was an actual Maori facial tattoo only made things worse.

When I saw the pictures, I coulnd't help but think of Neal Stephenson's novel SNOW CRASH, where one character who has been in trouble with the law previously bears a forehead tattoo that reads "poor impulse control" as a general warning to the rest of the population.

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